Posts Tagged ‘Holy Trinity’

I grew up in the Assemblies of God, a Trinitarian Pentecostal group. I was aware even as a child of the “other” Pentecostals out there who were called “Jesus Only” Pentecostals. My dad explained them to me once saying that they only believed in Jesus and not in the Father or the Holy Spirit. That was not entirely true but it was the best he understood. Over the years I have had very few encounters with Oneness folks. I visited a Oneness church only twice in my life and both for observation.

The Oneness movement is much older than Oneness Pentecostals like to believe. They like to believe that God restored the Oneness doctrine of God in 1913-14 with the split from Trinitarian Pentecostals. The Assemblies of God called the new teaching “the new issue” and rejected the Oneness teachings in 1916. Many AG pastors left the Assemblies of God over the issue. The largest Oneness Pentecostal group is the United Pentecostal Church International based out of Hazelwood, Missouri. The UPC is rejects the historic doctrine of the Trinity and holds to the Oneness doctrine.

The teaching is essentially the old heresy of Sabellianism from the 2nd century. The teaching is also called Modalism. Modalism teaches that there is only one God who reveals Himself in different “modes” such as the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. These three modes are not three persons but rather manifestations of the one true God. The Oneness Pentecostals teach that Jesus is the mighty God (Isaiah 9:6) and that Jesus is the Father and Jesus is the Son and Jesus is the Holy Ghost. Jesus is all three! Jesus only is God. There is no Father who is God nor a Son who is God nor the Spirit who is God but rather there is only one Person in the Godhead and His name is Jesus. Oneness Pentecostals go to Matthew 28:19 and they see baptize in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and they point out that the Name of God is revealed to us in Acts 2:38 when Peter used the keys given to him by Jesus to preach the truth of the Godhead, that the Name of God is Jesus. It is this Name (Acts 4:12) that saves us and only those who are baptized in the name of Jesus are truly saved (Romans 6:1-4).

In reality, the Oneness Pentecostals teach that the Father who is named Jesus is truly the eternal God. They would agree with the Arians, that the Son has a beginning in the incarnation (Luke 1:35) and the Son will have an ending (1 Corinthians 15:24-28). They love to use the word “begotten” in John 3:16 to prove that Jesus the Son was begotten by the Father. While this is a poor usage of the Greek term here (see the NIV for example here), Oneness Pentecostals have argued effectively to poorly taught Trinitarians about the nature the Son. They also love to point out that the words “Trinity” nor “God the Son” nor “the Eternal Son” are found in the New Testament and to them, this proves that Jesus as the Son was not eternally the Son of the Father but rather He had a beginning in Bethlehem.

So what do Oneness Pentecostals do with the Lord Jesus in the Gospels where He over and over again refers to “My Father” or “the Father?” Or what about where Jesus prays to the Father such has in John 17? Or what about Jesus’ baptism where all three persons (or manifestations in the Oneness mind) appear in Matthew 3:13-17? They believe that the key to understanding the life of Jesus is to understand that at times He was speaking as the Son and sometimes as God who is the Father. The Son, they teach, always refers to Jesus’ humanity and not to His divinity. When the Son is praying or eating or sleeping, He is doing so as the Man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). They believe that the Father (who is Jesus as the mighty God) wrapped Himself in flesh (John 1:14, 18) but the Son was not God only He was a man, the Son of God. So when Jesus was praying, He was praying from His human side to His divine side. And when Jesus was baptized, God, being God, chose to reveal all three manifestations at the same time which He can do if He wants. When we read of Jesus now in the presence of God at His right hand such as in Acts 2:34-36 or Hebrews 1:3, this is speaking of Jesus in His human manifestation before the eternal Father who is Jesus the divine side. To me it is very confusing and doesn’t allow the texts to read freely but nonetheless Oneness Pentecostals believe this is the key to reading and studying and understanding the Bible. It is their own unique hermeneutic if you will.

Oneness Pentecostals use three major texts to prove that Jesus is God the Father. First, they read Isaiah 9:6 and believe that the words “eternal Father” are referring to the Father. Secondly, they point to John 10:30 and point out that Jesus Himself here says that He and the Father are one. Third, they point to John 14:9 where Jesus answers Philip and says that if they had seen Him, they had seen the Father.

Time doesn’t permit me to answer the entire charges here and to be fair, Oneness Pentecostal have other texts they turn to prove their doctrine. In short, Isaiah 9:6 is not speaking of necessarily titles of the Lord Jesus. Nowhere in the New Testament are these titles worked out though they are true of Him. The concept of God as our Father is not fully developed in the Old Testament though spoken of a few times. Yet here the understanding could be “Father of eternity” in that the One to be born (Isaiah 7:14) is from ancient times (Micah 5:2). Jesus is eternal and thus He is the Father of eternity but this doesn’t mean that He is the Father. Secondly, the Greek text of John 10:30 is clear that Jesus is not speaking of unipersonal but essence when He says that He and the Father are one. The Greek says, “One we are.” There are very specific Greek words John could have used to show us that Jesus is the Father but instead He uses a Greek phrase that simply makes Jesus of the same kind as the Father. Third, even Oneness Pentecostals don’t believe that when Jesus the Man was saying to Philip that if he’d seen Him, he’d seen the Father that they were seeing at that very moment the Father. Oneness Pentecostals hold that the Father is a spirit and invisible to us (Colossians 1:15) but instead Jesus is saying that when the Apostles saw Jesus, they were seeing God the Father in that the Son is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. Not once in the New Testament does Jesus ever say that He is the Father though He refers to His Father or the Father or My Father hundreds of times.

Finally, a word about the Oneness view of salvation. This is the key for me. Oneness Pentecostals teach that a person must believe in Jesus, repent of their sins, be baptized in water by immersion “in the name of Jesus” for the forgiveness of sins, and then must receive the infilling of the Holy Ghost by the initial, physical evidence of speaking in tongues. A person is not justified by faith alone in the Oneness mind. A person must do all the above to be saved. Now sometimes in the Oneness church, a person will get the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues before being baptized in Jesus’ name but they point to Acts 10:43-48 as proof that this is okay.

Also it’s not enough to just believe in Jesus, be baptized in Jesus’ name and receive the Holy Ghost with evidence of tongues, one must also live a holy life till the end lest they “lose their salvation.” Holiness includes the holiness codes set up by many Oneness churches including women wearing dresses, not cutting their hair, no makeup or jewelry, and men must be clean-shaven, short hair, avoid alcohol and tobacco and live a holy life. It is amounts to works-righteousness though Oneness folks will argue that they do it with joy.

In closing, Oneness Pentecostals are nice folks but being nice is not the standard of truth. The Word of God is the final authority and they would agree. I have been meeting a Oneness pastor from time to time to talk theology and he is a bright, loving man. He wants me to accept him merely because he loves Jesus. That, he says, should unite us. But I disagree. I am not mean to him but the Jesus he says that he worships and loves is the not the Jesus of the Bible. I know that hurts but its true. The Jesus he says that he worships is not the same as the Jesus I worship. He believes that since Oneness Pentecostals speak in tongues the same as Trinitarian Pentecostals speak in tongues, this must prove that God accepts them both despite someone being wrong about the Godhead. He also believes that since Oneness Pentecostals teach and preach that Jesus is God, what is the big deal?

There are obviously many errors. For just one. Consider the atonement. In Oneness theology the saving work of Christ is not God dying in my place, standing condemned for my sins. Instead, we have the Father wrapped in flesh but not really a man. Instead Jesus only appears as a man but the true Jesus is still the eternal Father. In other words, the divine payment for our sins is not payed by the Lord God but instead by a mere man albeit a perfect one because the Father was inside of the man. The payment is not God redeeming us through the divine Son but instead it is the human Jesus paying the penalty for our sins to the Father Jesus. How weird. In Trinitarian theology, the second person of the holy Trinity, the Lord Jesus, bears our sins on the cross and redeems us from the holy wrath of God. God is truly in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself (2 Corinthians 5:18-21) because the Son is offering His life for our sins to the glory of the Father who sent Him into the world (John 3:16).

Over even consider Jesus is our high priest who offers Himself before the Father to pray for us sinners (Hebrews 4:14-15). Hebrews 7:22-28 speaks of Jesus being our high priest before the Father. Jesus, as our faithful high priest, offered Himself to God (Hebrews 9:24-28) and He now sits at the Father’s right hand to ever live to pray for us. In Oneness theology, Jesus as the Father hears Jesus the flesh (the Son) when we pray to Him. In Trinitarian theology, the text is allowed to speak for itself: Jesus the Son prays for us sinner before the holy Father. Jesus is truly our high priest in every since of the word. A time will come when this will end at the consummation of the ages but this doesn’t mean that Jesus will cease to be the Son of God nor will He cease to reign as our Savior (1 Corinthians 15:24-28).

And I could write much more. I have gone too long. I close by simply pointing out that Oneness Pentecostals fall short of the truth of Scripture. While I admire them for their zeal and for holding to monotheism and to the authority of the Bible, I find much of their theology lacking. I pray that God will help us, as biblical Trinitarians, to know what we believe about God and why the Trinity is not an optional doctrine. The Trinity is vital.

There are those who want to deny that Jesus is God. They teach that only the Father is God and that He alone is one true and living God but Jesus is just a man, albeit an anointed man used by God and even the Messiah but certainly not divine. These groups will often claim that they hold that Jesus is the true Messiah and that He was born of the virgin Mary by the power of God but they deny that He was God or even claimed to be God. Some of them believe Jesus was the Son of God but not eternally existent with the Father and distinct from the Father in any way. The Oneness Pentecostals, for example, deny that the Son of God is eternal but rather that He came to exist in Bethlehem (Luke 1:35; Galatians 4:4).

You’ll find many of the Hebrews Roots Movement teachers denying that Jesus is God. They hold to modalism but only that Yahweh is God but not Yeshua. They teach that Jesus is the Messiah but He was not God nor did He claim to be God. They view Jesus as anointed by Yahweh and the servant of Yahweh but He is not Yahweh and He is not divine. Jesus is our example, a mighty prophet of God, the Messiah sent by Yahweh, but Jesus is not divine in their teachings. They believe this protects the monotheism of Judaism and does not elevate a man above Yahweh.

Others teach, like the Oneness Pentecostals but in different terms, that the Father alone is God. They point out the word of Jesus in such passages as Mark 12:29-30 or John 20:17. It seems that Jesus is giving honor to the Father and alone to the Father thus He is not claiming equality with God nor is claiming to receive worship but He is pointing others to the Father who alone is God.

Jesus is above men and angels. He is not part of them. The Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus is Michael from the Old Testament. The Oneness Pentecostals teach that Jesus the Son is but a man and not the eternal God. The Hebrews Roots Movement teaches that Jesus is a great prophet and even the Messiah of God but He is not God but is part of God’s creation. Consider these texts: John 1:17; Ephesians 1:19-23; Philippians 2:9-11; Colossians 1:17-18; Colossians 2:10; Hebrews 1:4-6, 13; Hebrews 2:5-8; Hebrews 3:3; 1 Peter 3:21-22; Revelation 1:5.

Jesus Receives Prayer, Praise, and Worship.

How can Jesus receive prayer, praise, and worship if He is not God? This would violate the clear teachings of the Old Testament that forbids the people of God from praying to anyone but Yahweh (see Deuteronomy 4:39; 5:7-9; 13:1-5; Isaiah 43:11; 44:6-8; 45:22; etc.). The Bible is clear that there is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4) and there are no other gods. So if Jesus received prayer, praise, and worship and He is not God, then men are praying, praising, and worshiping a man (even an exalted man by Yahweh but Yahweh alone is to receive worship). This would be utter blasphemy (as Muslims point out) if Jesus is just a prophet, just a created being, even just the Messiah. If Jesus is not God, why pray to Him or praise Him or worship Him? This would be sinful. Yet Scripture is clear that people did pray, praise, and worshipped Him:

One cannot read the New Testament and see that Jesus is distinct from His Father. He speaks of His Father, prays to His Father, and says that He has come to do the will of His Father. Jesus said that His food “is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34). Jesus said that He does not nothing by His own initiative but He only spoke the things as His Father taught Him (John 8:28). Jesus said that He proceeds from the Father to do the Father’s will (John 8:42).

And on and on it goes. The Lord Jesus is portrayed as the Son of God, equal with the Father (John 10:30) but He is never said to be the Father. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. Yet the Bible affirms that there is but one God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Ephesians 4:4-6). 1 Corinthians 8:6 has stumbled some but John MacArthur writes:

Paul repeats the truth that there is but one God. He is the one from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. There is only one true God. He has come to us in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ, and we are brought to the Father through the divine Son. Everything comes from the Father, and all believers exist for the Father. Everything is by the Son, and everyone who comes to the Father comes through the Son. This is a powerful and clear affirmation of the equality of essence of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 8:6, rather than denying the Lordship and exaltation and deity of Jesus Christ, actually makes Him equal with the Father.

In Hebrews 1:2 tells us that God the Father made the world through the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 1:3 it is Jesus who upholds the universe by His Word. In Hebrews 1:8 the Father says about the Son that He is God. In Hebrews 1:10 we read that Jesus is Yahweh (see Psalm 102:25-27).

So the question is whether Jesus is His own Father? The Oneness Pentecostals and other modalists insist that Jesus as the Son is less than the Father and that the Father alone is truly the eternal God. The Oneness Pentecostals teach that Jesus is the Father, Jesus is the Son, Jesus is the Holy Ghost. In Oneness teachings, Jesus is God but He alone is God and God is unipersonal (meaning that there is only one Person in the Godhead; Colossians 2:9). Trinitarians teach that there is only one God but we believe in three persons (unitarian versus trinitarian). I reject the Oneness view that Jesus is His own Father. I find nothing in the Bible to suggest that Jesus is His own Father nor can one find a passage without extreme twisting.

The closest text we have is Isaiah 9:6. Oneness Pentecostals will quickly quote this verse when defending the idea that the Father is Jesus and Jesus is the Father. They teach that one of the titles of the Lord Jesus would be “eternal Father.” Yet Oneness Pentecostals are alone in their unique view of Isaiah 9:6. The titles found in Isaiah 9:6 are part of who Jesus would be. He would be like a wonderful counselor. Jesus would be the mighty God. Jesus would be like an eternal Father speaking of HIs Fatherly role as our Redeemer, and He would be the Prince of Peace. These are not offices Jesus would be fulfilling but titles He would take upon Himself.

Consider this: does the New Testament ever say that Jesus is the Father or the Father is Jesus?

The Oneness view destroys so many precious doctrines. The Person of Jesus suffers. One has to read the New Testament with a weird “key” of trying to figure out if Jesus is speaking as the Father (as God) or as a man (as the Son). The sacrifice of Jesus is not infinite in its value because Jesus is just a man who is dying on the cross for our sins rather than God manifested in the flesh (John 1:14). The nature of true love is lost because the Lord Jesus is but a created being of the Father (who alone is God). Prayer suffers as we pray to Jesus (the Father, the eternal God) in the name of Jesus (the Son, the flesh but not God) rather than seeing that Jesus is God the Son praying for the saint before the throne of God the Father through the power of God the Spirit.

In closing, let me state that as I write this I am listening to a oneness Pentecostal preacher preaching. Ironically, he is shouting over and over again that Jesus is God, that Jesus alone is God, and that there is no God but Jesus. Yet he is borrowing from a trinitarian presupposition by borrowing our language to speak of God. He speaks of the Father and he preaches about praying in the name of Jesus and worshiping God through Jesus but all of this involves having to “split” Jesus up. The oneness Pentecostal must borrow from the trinitarian view to make their theology work but they then must hate the Trinity lest they be a trinitarian (which condemns the sinner). They must speak of Jesus as a unipersonal being with dual personalities (at least while on earth).

I rejoice in the doctrine of the Trinity. It is a precious doctrine. The Trinity makes sense of the Bible and helps us to see the infinite value of the atonement of Christ. Further, the work of sanctification in the disciple is enhanced by understanding that the entire Trinity is involved not just in my salvation but in my sanctification. I worship God and rejoice that He is wonderful and worthy.

I have often said that whenever the doctrine of the Trinity is denied, the group that does the denying must do something with Jesus. The Father is usually not attacked. The Father is usually held up as the eternal God but groups who deny the doctrine of the Trinity must do something with Jesus and it is Jesus who is usually attacked and demoted. The Holy Spirit is often altogether ignored.

Consider two groups who are similar in many ways: the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Oneness Pentecostals. Both are Arians. Both find the theological heritage in Arius and his condemned teachings. Arius said that there was a time when the Son was not. Arius viewed God the Father as the eternal God and the one that we must worship but Jesus is viewed as a created being and less than the Father though still the Son of God. Arius reasoned that since God is one and the Father is God, the Son cannot be God logically lest there be another god. Therefore, the Son is a created being though exalted by the Father.

Now consider the Jehovah’s Witness (JW hereafter). The JW’s teach that Jehovah God alone is God. Jehovah is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the supreme creation of God and He is Michael in the Old Testament. JW’s (after 1954) forbid people for worshipping Jesus Christ. They teach that Jesus is wonderful, our example, our Savior but He is not God. He is a creation of God and the firstborn of Jehovah’s creation (Colossians 1:15). The New World Translation follows the JW bias but denying the Lord Jesus His full deity in passages such as John 1:1. In JW teaching, Jesus is the Son of God but He had a beginning and He has an ending as well when in eternity Jehovah alone will be worshiped as the true and living God (John 17:3; 1 Corinthians 15:24). The point here is that Jesus is less than the Father (Jehovah) and He is a created being.

Oneness Pentecostals are not much different. They will declare that Jesus is God which makes them separate from JW’s but Jesus the Son is not eternal. Only the Father is eternal. In Oneness teaching, there is only one God (which is biblically true) and since there is only one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are all the same God (true) but not persons but instead are manifestations of the one true God (this is a heresy called Sabellianism). Jesus is the one true God in Oneness Pentecostal teaching but only Jesus is God. Thus Jesus is the Father, Jesus is the Son, and Jesus is the Holy Ghost. Jesus the Father alone is eternal. The Son had a beginning in Oneness teaching. The Son is not eternal but only came to be in Luke 1:35. Until Jesus the Son was born in Bethlehem, He did not exist as the Son but only as the Father. So the Son is not the eternal God but only the Father is the eternal God (Jehovah).

Do you see the link? The JW’s teach that Jehovah alone is God (the Father) and the Oneness Pentecostals teach that only Jesus the Father is eternal. Both deny that the Son is eternal. Both teach that the Son had a beginning and has an ending. Jesus the Son is not important as much as the Father is.

In Trinitarian theology, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all the one true and living God. There is only one God and He is revealed in Scripture as three persons in the one Godhead. While the mystery of the Trinity is not easy to grasp, we must do something with Jesus. Jesus is called God in the Bible (John 1:1, 14, 18; 20:28; Romans 9:5) and He shares in many aspects of divinity along with the Father and the Spirit. Jesus spoke of His Father as distant from Him but He never made Himself less than the Father. Jesus viewed Himself equal to His Father (John 10:30) and yet as the Messiah, He was perfectly obedient to His Father (Hebrews 5:8). Jesus said He came from heaven (John 3:13) and He said He came from the Father (John 17:5). Hebrews 1:3 says that the Father created the entire worlds though Jesus Christ the Son. If Jesus is a created being, how can this be? Philippians 2:5-11 is clear that Jesus is equal to God and He took upon Himself the form of a servant to do the will of His Father.

Time does not permit me to defend the deity of the Spirit but He too shares in the personality of God. The Spirit is not a force as in JW teaching or a part of Jesus the Father but instead the Spirit is very much a Person who does the works of God. The Spirit is co-equal, co-eternal with the Father and with the Son.

Jesus is where we find our problems. Those who deny the Trinity must denounce and dethrone Jesus. Jesus has to become less than the Father or less than God. In Islam, Jesus is a great prophet but certainly not God. In JW, Jesus is a created being but not the eternal God. In Oneness Pentecostalism, Jesus is the name of the one true God but Jesus the Son only came to be when the Holy Ghost caused Mary to be impregnated. In Mormonism, Jesus is a son of God like we all are and in fact He is a son along with Lucifer. In Arianism, Jesus was a created being who is less than the Father. In Sabellianism Jesus is part of a manifestation or mode of God but certainly there is no Trinity.

We stumble over Jesus just as Scripture predicts (1 Peter 2:6-8). We must do something with Jesus. I choose to worship Him and adore Him and praise Him and preach Him (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

I have been studying the doctrine of the holy Trinity now for some time. I love the doctrine! It is amazing how Scripture opens up when you begin to study the nature of God. Fred Sanders is correct, “The trinity changes everything.” The holy Trinity changes our understanding of love, creation, humanity, order, prayer, worship, and salvation. Without the Trinity, these doctrines become confusing and twisted.

In my studies, I have been reading books from the Oneness camps to see where they are coming from. I have listened to many hours of lectures and sermons from Oneness Pentecostals. Some of the sermons were just normal sermons while most of them I tried to pick that focused on my studies. I will not, for the sake of time, try to dive into the Oneness views regarding their view of God. It is suffice to say that Oneness Pentecostals are “Jesus only” meaning that, in the words of one of their preachers, “Jesus is everything.” In Oneness Pentecostalism, Jesus is the Father, Jesus is the Son, Jesus is the Holy Spirit. There is more to it than just that but they hold that Jesus is God and that there is only one God and thus Jesus is the only person of the Godhead and He alone is all three modes or manifestations of God that we read in the Bible.

What is the draw then to Oneness Pentecostalism? I think the appeal is the same as the draw to Trinitarian Pentecostalism in many ways. First, there is the focus on experience. Oneness Pentecostalism is very emotional. The worship is dramatic. People often shake, dance, run, lift their hands, speak in tongues, etc. in their worship services. The God of Oneness churches is a very personal God who wants to interact with his people.

Secondly, the preaching is more dramatic than the average evangelical sermon. While I enjoy a good expository sermon, I detest a lifeless one. I want a preacher who preaches with passion the truth of God with sound exegesis. However, the average evangelical pulpit is often shallow and lifeless. Not so with many Oneness Pentecostal churches. They preach with power (anointing they would say). While their message is often shallow and not based on exegesis, they preach with conviction and shouting and fire that is often missing in evangelical churches.

Third, they present themselves as the keepers of the truth. Oneness Pentecostals (most of them I have listened to) believe that all are lost but Oneness Pentecostals. If you have not been saved according to their view of Acts 2:38, you are lost. This would be all Trinitarians including Trinitarian Pentecostals. You must be baptized in the name of Jesus to have your sins forgiven. To be baptized in any other way is damnation. This twisting of Acts 2:38 leads Oneness Pentecostals to feel that they alone are the keepers of the truth of God. Their duty is to evangelize all who are not Oneness. This “cause” helps people find purpose in their existence.

Lastly, simple answers. People want to know who is God. Oneness Pentecostals are ready with an answer: Jesus is God. Of course, Trinitarians believe the same but Oneness groups don’t teach that the one God is three persons but rather they teach that Jesus is God and He alone is God and He alone has always been God and He alone will forever be God. There are no persons in the Godhead but only Jesus (Colossians 2:9). If you’ve seen Jesus, you’ve seen the Father (John 14:8-9). Oneness groups provide answers for who is God and what is He like. Like cults, they have answers for God where confusing may exist. They have their God figured out.

Sadly, many Trinitarian Pentecostals often fall into prey with Oneness Pentecostals. The reason is that pragmatism abounds among the Trinitarian Pentecostals. One could easily attend a Trinitarian Pentecostal church and never know that it was Pentecostal. This is not so with Oneness Pentecostals. They have the feel of the old Pentecostal services where the music is jumping, the people are jumping, and the sermons are “anointed.” The average Trinitarian Pentecostal looking for an “experience” with Jesus will find one in Oneness churches and will remind them of “the good old days.” Due to pragmatism, doctrine among many Trinitarian Pentecostals is weak and thus a Trinitarian Pentecostal is easily drawn into the Oneness groups and led astray.

The doctrine of the Trinity is not an easy doctrine to grasp. For one, we are limited as human beings to understand God. His ways are beyond our ways and His thoughts are beyond our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). God has made Himself known to us in His Word but even there we are limited in what we know about God. We know enough about God to fear Him and to be saved by His grace (John 17:3) but we are still limited in what we know about God.

This should not cause fear nor doubts to arise. If you can figure out your God, He is not the true and living God who has revealed Himself to us by His Word. The true and living God is simply a mystery to us. He is not a man (Numbers 23:19) nor has He ever been a man (Isaiah 43:10). God has always been God and will always be God. God never changes (James 1:17). God remains the same and His years will never end (Psalm 102:27). The immutability of God is a doctrine that we should rest in (Hebrews 13:8) knowing that God will keep His promises since He is forever faithful (1 Kings 8:56; Romans 4:21).

When it comes to understanding the doctrine of the Trinity, it helps to think this way: there is only one what (God) and yet there are three who’s (Divine Persons). One God eternally existent in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each of the divine persons is a person in that they are co-equal, co-eternal with the other members of the Triune God so that the Father is not the Son nor is He the Holy Spirit nor is the Son the Father nor is He the Holy Spirit nor is the Holy Spirit the Father nor is He the Son. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. Yet again, there is not three manifestations of the one true God (modalism) nor is the Father greater than the Son and the Spirit (Arianism). Instead, the Bible teaches us that there is one God (Deuteronomy 4:35; 6:4; 32:39; 2 Samuel 7:22; 1 Chronicles 17:20; Psalm 83:18; 86:10; Isaiah 44:6; 45:18; Mark 12:29; 1 Corinthians 8:4; Ephesians 4:6; 1 Timothy 2:5). Yet the New Testament is clear that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God yet there is only one God.

How then do we reconcile these facts? Those who deny the Trinity run into error. If you deny the doctrine of the Trinity, you must do something with the one true God. You then must turn to answering who is God? Is the Father then God and yet not the Son or the Spirit? Or are there now three gods which means you must deny the fact that there is only one God? Cults often attack the Lord Jesus and deny His full deity or they make Him less than the Father. Oneness Pentecostals claim to exalt Jesus but they deny the full deity and persons of the Father and Spirit (though they would claim to embrace their deity while denying their personhood). Most cults exalt the Father as above the Son in some way (although the Bible does teach the willful submission of the Son to the Father in His mediating role; see 1 Corinthians 15:24-28).

It is simply easier to come to the mystery of the Trinity and admit I don’t fully understand it but I accept it by faith because it is what the Bible teaches. God is beyond me. Again, I point to Isaiah 55:8-9. God’s ways are not my ways. He is God and I humble myself before Him. I confess that there is only one God and yet three persons in the one Godhead. I confess that the Father is not the Son nor is He the Spirit. I confess that truth to all three persons. There is only one God but three persons in the one Godhead. I know not how this is nor does it completely make sense to me but it is what Scripture teaches and I humble myself before the one true and living God.

Almost every denial of the doctrine of the Trinity will lead to an attack upon the Lord Jesus Christ or a gross application thereof. For example, in Jehovah Witness theology, Jesus is Michael the angel. Jesus is created by the Father and He is not eternal nor equal with the Father. Jesus is not even worshiped among the JW’s (although they did worship Jesus until 1954 when the Watchtower banned JW’s from worshiping Jesus). In the case of the JW’s, they are simply replaying the old heresy of Arianism and making Jesus simply a part of God’s creation instead of being God.

Others attack the person and work of Christ outright. The Hebraic Roots movement is gaining speed in the West (due in large part to a reaction to the shallow seeker churches). This movement at first seems to affirm the Lord Jesus but the more you get to studying under “rabbis” the more you’ll come to “learn” that Jesus is not God. In fact, they deny that salvation is accomplished by the finish work of the Messiah but instead they believe one must keep the law of Moses to be saved. This is nothing more than the old heresy of the Judaizers of Acts 15 all over again.

Paul the Apostle was so protective of the gospel and the Person and Work of Christ Jesus that he issued a curse upon anyone who did not preach the truth (Galatians 1:6-9). Paul warned the Corinthians against the lies of Satan (2 Corinthians 11:2-4). He wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:5 what he was passionate about preaching: Christ as Lord! Paul used the Greek word kurious as he did also in Romans 10:9 and Philippians 2:11. Jesus is Lord was his cry! This same word was used by the Jews in the Greek Old Testament about God.

In Isaiah 40:3 we find that Jesus is both Yahweh and Elohim. Mormonism teaches, for example, that Yahweh and Elohim are different persons. Elohim is said to be the Father of the Lord Jesus who is Jehovah or Yahweh. Yet Isaiah wrote:

A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD (Yahweh);
make straight in the desert a highway for our God (Elohim).

This verse is applied to John the Baptist in Matthew 3:3 about the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is both Yahweh and Elohim!

The biblical doctrine of the Trinity is not easy to grasp and is unique among Christians. No other religion compares to Christianity in this regard. Islam and Judaism both claim monotheism along with Christianity but Islam and Judaism are both unitarian monotheism or that God is absolutely one. Christianity is unique in that we believe in one God (monotheism) but in three persons in the one God. In this way, Christianity is trinitarian monotheistic. Three who’s and one what. One what and three who’s. This is how I teach my children the doctrine of the Trinity. All three persons in the Godhead are called God in the Bible. Yet the Bible affirms one God. The answer is not to deny monotheism nor to deny Trinitarianism but to embrace both as true. There is one God and three persons in the one God.

Denials of the Trinity bring many problems. What do we do with the divine persons being mentioned together such as in Matthew 28:19 or 2 Corinthians 13:14? What do we do with the baptism of Jesus where all three persons are manifest (Matthew 3:13-17)? What do we do with Jesus’ clear affirmation of both His own deity and yet His submission to the Father? What do we do with the Spirit of God raising Jesus from the dead? What do we do with the clear affirmation of Deuteronomy 6:4 in 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 yet Paul’s clear understanding that Jesus is equal with God?

The bottom line is not to try to deny the person and work of the Lord Jesus but to affirm His work and His glory and His deity and to bow down and worship Him. We are to praise God through the Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself our sins and sits at the right hand of God to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25) as our mediator before God the Father (1 Timothy 2:5-6). We must pray to the Father in the name of Jesus (John 14:13-14) giving Him the glory that is due to Him. We must worship God in the Holy Spirit (John 4:23-24; Philippians 3:3). To deny the Trinity only leads to chaos and various attacks on the Lord Jesus Christ.